Scenes from an Argentine road trip

Hello everybody - here's a little video from a spot I visited with a few other exchange students this weekend in the mountains south of Córdoba. I obviously don't have a career as a videographer, but I thought y'all might enjoy the footage anyway. Oh - and don't mind the pained look on my face throughout. I was squinting against the sun, not suffering some terrible injury as it appears from the video.

Mississippi is famous!

I guess being from Mississippi and living there most of my life I never thought much about it, but apparently news of our state has reached Argentina. Most of the time when I meet people and they ask where I'm from, they can't find the state on a map, many of them think New Orleans is in Mississippi for some reason, and they usually want to talk about Mark Twain (who's from Missouri). But they all are very sure about one thing, and most of them get pretty excited about it. It usually goes something like this:

Argentine guy: ¿De dónde sos? (Where are you from?)

Colin: Estados Unidos. (United States)

Argentine guy: ¿Qué parte? (What part?)

Colin: Mississippi, en el Sureste. (Mississippi, in the Southeast)

Argentine: Aaaaaah sí. ¡El bluz!

Fortunately I fit the stereotype they have and I do know how to play blues guitar, so I don't disappoint. It has earned me invitations to hear numerous garage bands and to play at several jam sessions - all of them want their band to have the approval of a real live Mississippi bluesman. I find it pretty hysterical that I'm 20 years old and white and they actually think I'm a real live Mississippi bluesman, but I'm milking it for what it's worth. There is a pretty good local music scene in this town - so far I've seen a reggae band, a jazz jam session, and a salsa band, all of which were very good and I met a lot of interesting folks at all of them.

More pictures to come later - hope everybody is doing great.

- Colin

Bad new for vegetarians

A lot of you probably know that beef is one of the most important agricultural products in Argentina. I don't know exactly what the science of it is, but something about this climate and the grass they eat and the way the cows are raised makes it the most tender, rich beef you've ever put in your mouth. So el asado, which translated more or less to cookout or barbecue, is a big deal here, and just like a barbecue in the States it's a good excuse to get a lot of people together and share some beverages and eat too much. I thought I'd share a few photos of the most recent asado I went to. The first is Jonathan from Colombia getting the fire ready in el asador - almost every house has a big brick structure like that for making asado in the back yard - the second is the huge platter of ribs we were about to cook, the third is my three French friends Isabella, Bautiste, and Manuel, and the last is us enjoying the finished product. From left, Chiara, Isabella, Bautiste and myself.

Until next time everybody - thanks for keeping up with me and emailing and Facebooking regularly. Hearing from folks really helps stave off the homesickness so keep it coming.

I have to go to school here?

Thought I'd add some pictures from the past few days. From top left clockwise: Eric from Nebraska and me (with my eyes closed) with Emeline from France and Nadine and Elisabeth from Germany at an espresso bar close to my house, some indigenous musicians playing in the street, some of the other students getting into some pata flambeada - that's a roasted cow's leg - and finally La Mitre at about 5 in the morning. It's a dance club we went to Friday night; don't know if you can tell from the picture or not but you literally couldn't move in there for all the people. It took about 45 minutes to walk from one side of the room to the other. People here don't go out until 2 or 3 and it's typical to be out until 5 or 6.

In other news, today was the first day I had to go to class. We took a Spanish language placement test this morning, so I'll know by the end of the week what level of Spanish class I'll be taking. Also went to Global Economics after busting into the wrong classroom and interrupting a professor - you know that dream where you open the door to enter a lecture hall from the back and 100 people turn around and stare and the professor stops talking? Yeah it was like that. But then I found the right room, only to sit there for an hour with the rest of the class before someone came and told us that the professor forgot she was supposed to start classes today. We're going to try again on Thursday. If a professor at Ole Miss just forgot to come to the first day of the semester it could mean his job, but nobody seemed too upset about it here. Guess that's Latin America for you.

More later this week. Hope everybody's doing well.

I'm finally here

After months of planning and waiting, I'm finally actually in Argentina. So far all I've really done is move into my apartment and go to the first two days of orientation. We're learning about all about the grading scale of the classes here, which is a lot different from anything I've ever seen, and going through the process of getting student visas and all kind of stuff like that. Starting next week I get to sit in on all the classes I'm considering signing up for and then make my final schedule by the 18th. Córdoba is a really cool city from what I've seen thus far, the people are really nice and very helpful to foreigners, and my living situation looks like it's going to be pretty cool. So far 3 of my roommates are here - a French girl and 2 German girls, and 2 more German girls are getting here in the next few weeks. Don't know how that worked out; 5 European girls, me and one bathroom will never be boring to say the least. Looks like the other exchange students are going to make up a fun group too - there are a lot from France, Germany, and Mexico, a few from various other European and Latin American countries, and 7 or 8 other Americans. All of them I've talked to so far are really easy to talk to, probably because we're all equally lost and nervous at this point.

Photos: The first is the street I live on, about 2 blocks from my apartment, the second is a cathedral in the center of the city, the third is a street performer a few blocks from the campus - they're pretty common - the 4th is an American import with "I'm lovin' it" in Spanish underneath, and the last is the family right before I got on the plane out of Jackson. Hope everybody's well - feel free to email or Facebook me whenever.